27.05.2003 - Stuttgart, Röhre

Review by Uli:

This time I had somebody to pick up before I started the drive to Stuttgart, Johnny wanted to come along to the gig (I'd often emailed him about T.V. and played him some of his songs). Though I was still a bit tired from the night before (see Karlsruhe review), it went well - apart from the search for a parking space which is always a nightmare close to the venue "Die Röhre". So we had a nice little walk to the venue. At the door we almost bumped into Wolfgang (who'd told me he wouldn't come because of work etc.)...

Inside there weren't many people, I spotted JS at a table (though it was quite dark in there), we said our hello's and introduced our friends. As it was nice weather outside and obviously it would take a while until the band would start, Johnny and me decided to go outside for a while, in the entrance hall we met T.V., so we talked a bit and I told him JS was inside.

Outside we chatted with Wolfgang, when all of a sudden I heard the Garden Gang instrumental (which was their first song the night before) - even though the venue was quite empty they were starting their show! They performed their songs as well as the night before, despite the low attendance!

When T.V. then entered the stage his guitar couldn't be heard through the speakers (at soundcheck it did work of course), so he decided to give us an acoustic number until the problem was fixed, he just stood at the front of the stage and performed "Atlantic Tunnel"! The "regular" gig then started with "Not A Bad Day". Apart from a few songs, the setlist was quite different to the night before, e.g. he played "Swimming In The Flood" and "We Who Wait" (with a German intro: "wir warten"). Some others I remember: "Not In My Name" again, as well as "What If?", "Television's Over", "For Every Hit There's A Miss" and "Useless". As he broke three strings throughout the show, of course "My String Will Snap" was performed too. (Something must have been wrong with the guitar that night...)

Someone wished for "Runaway Train Driver", normally that was the song he performed before Garden Gang joined him, but as he wanted to play some more, he told them not to come on stage at this point! When they did later, the sound was better than the night before, so I enjoyed myself a lot and danced a bit... (Thankfully I wasn't alone, a few others were dancing too.)

After they had played all the songs they had rehearsed together, T.V. returned for a second encore on his own. When he asked for requests, there wasn't any response at first, so I shouted "Borderline" (which I'd never heard live before) and I got it! (Thanks a lot T.V.!) Then he reactivated his "computer band" and played "Statute Of Liberty".

All in all a very good show and quite nice atmosphere despite a low attendance. (T.V. said it was the "Stuttgart effect" again, like last year.)

Before the show I'd shortly talked to a couple who obviously hadn't known much about T.V., afterwards they told me that they'd really enjoyed the show, which was good to hear.

Near the merchandise table we talked to JS and Florian, later a bit with T.V. and the Gang. This time we drove off a lot earlier as in Karlsruhe; also T.V. and the band were about to drive to Augsburg immediately after they'd packed their gear in...